Shevrin Jones wins crowded District 35 Senate primary
Despite campaign smears, attacks targeting his sexuality and even a bout of COVID-19, West Park Democrat Shevrin Jones, one of the Florida Legislature’s few openly gay lawmakers, came out successful in one of the most crowded, competitive and closely watched primary races. He now has the inside track to replace term-limited Sen. Oscar Braynon representing parts of Miami-Dade and Broward counties in Senate District 35.
Jones appeared to be an early winner with a comfortable margin of more than 27 percentage points over the closest challenger, former state senator Daphne Campbell with more than 97% of precincts reporting Tuesday night.
Jones beat out three Tallahassee veterans — Campbell, Rep. Barbara Watson and former Rep. Cynthia Stafford — as well as Miami Gardens Councilman Erhabor Ighodaro and retired firefighter Wilbur Harbin in the crowded race.
In November Jones will face write-in opponent Darien Hill, an independent who has been essentially inactive in the race. If Jones wins, he will be the first openly gay member of the Florida Senate.
Jones told the Miami Herald Tuesday night that his win represents a tone shift in South Florida, where other young, queer and Black candidates were successful Tuesday night. In District 88, Lake Worth Beach Commissioner Omari Hardy who is also Black and faced anti-gay slurs beat incumbent Rep. Al Jacquet by a large margin. In District 95, Jasmen RogersShaw, a young, queer Black first-time candidate, narrowly lost her race with more than 49% of the votes against incumbent Rep.
Anika Omphroy.
“It’s a clear picture that people are tired of the divisive nature of where we are in this country and my message to anyone in politics is that the high road always wins,” Jones said. “It’s a glass ceiling broken.”
The race has been a messy one, complete with fake Barack Obama robocalls and a robotext and website that ripped off a Miami Herald story about Jones’ attempt to donate plasma after recovering from COVID-19.
The candidates, most of whom have held office and have their own base of voters, have been vocal about why they were the best choice. Some targeted frontrunner Jones for his sexuality in an attempt to connect with religious voters. The blood donation robotext highlighted a Food and
Drug Administration rule that men who have had sex with men in the last three months may not donate plasma, noting that Jones was turned away for donating.
Like Ighodaro, Watson and Stafford have represented slivers of the district before, and say their names are trusted in the community, where people want to vote for people they already know. While Campbell represented the neighboring Senate district in the Legislature, her frequent appearances on local radio programming, her memorable songs and music videos and her larger-than-life community presence make her a name hard to forget, especially in the Haitian community that makes up a large swath of the district.
But Jones raised more money than all of them combined while growing a national profile of his own. After he was diagnosed with COVID-19, Jones took to major news networks like CNN and MSNBC as well as local media to criticize the state’s contact tracing program and discuss the state’s response to the pandemic.
Jones told the Miami Herald that he hopes voters see the work he has done in his eight years in the House and expect he will perform the same in the Senate. He doesn’t want to be boxed into a label of just being Black or queer or young. But he says he’s happy to pave the way for other young people to garner the courage to run for office.
“Don’t allow what people say to deter you from moving forward and breaking through the finish line,” he said. “Times are changing. The young people will win.”
FERNANDEZ WINS DISTRICT 39 PRIMARY
State Rep. Javier Fernández will advance in one of the Florida Democratic Party’s most important and winnable races on the ballot as Democrats try to achieve parity in the Senate for the first time in two decades.
Fernández’s competitor, lawyer Daniel HortonDiaz, conceded to the South Miami Democrat at around 7:30 p.m., citing low early polling numbers in Miami-Dade County that he said he “couldn’t quite catch” this time around.
Fernández, 45, appeared to be the winner with a comfortable margin of more than 18 percentage points over Horton-Diaz, a lawyer, with more than 93% of precincts reporting late Tuesday.
Fernández will compete with Republican opponent and fellow House member Rep. Ana Maria Rodriguez to replace term-limited Republican incumbent
Anitere Flores in November. Senate District 39 is a competitive one and includes South Miami-Dade and all of Monroe County. The district voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 even though it went for Flores in the state Senate race.
“As the son of a school teacher who raised four children on her own, I saw every day what true sacrifice looks like. I also saw how our community rallied together in times of need, and I vowed to do all I could to give back to a country that had given us so much,” Fernández said in a statement Tuesday. “Tonight is another step forward on that journey.”